Best for beginner?

[shirlthegirl43]

Okay, this year I fancy growing some flowers which can be cut for the house. I buy bedding plants for the front 'garden' every year as I only use about a dozen bizzie lizzies or whatever takes my fancy there, but this year I really think it would be nice to cheer up a bit of the garden and be able to bring some indoors. I do usually grow sweetpeas but haven't had much luck with them the last two years.

Questions then:

1 What is really easy to grow from seed for a beginner
2 What will flower for a good length of time and be good for cutting

Cheers folks - I know you will help me find my way to being a bit more girly in my gardening

[Nicos]

Rudbeckia are dead easy and come in a variety of orange/yellow/red/chestnut colours and last well when cut.
They grow through the summer and well into the autumn too!

[scarey55]

Hi Shirley,

I have been thinking the same thing for ages now and I have found THIS - any use?

[sarraceniac]

I just received some Rudbeckia maxima seed from a friend in North Carolina. There are too many for me so if you would like a few then PM me your address. You won't need many. They are quite large to be planted 2 feet apart and can get to 4 feet high but are a gorgeous yellow. Maybe too large for you?

[hooraynana]

Hi
I have found cosmos v easy to grow and it makes a nice cut flower
also dahlias - but depends where you live if you have to lift the tubers etc

[shirlthegirl43]

Thanks folks, that gives me a start point - good site that Scarey, off to play outdoors for a wee while then will have a close look and a bit of a think.

[Flummery]

I grew a Rudbeckia called 'Green Eyes' from Thompson and Morgan last year. They were lovely big yellow daisies with a green centre. Got loads of comments about them and they did last well as a cut flower. Also cornflower - comes in colours other than blue too.

[janeyo]

I was given a packet of cosmos seeds, I sprinked some and they grew. I did some in poots and then planted them out and they grew too. They were easy and flowered from about august til november.

I also put in gladioli bulbs and they make nice big cut flowers

janeyo

[Jardiniere]

where did you get the POOTS from? I need some....................

[chengjing]

1 What is really easy to grow from seed for a beginner

I would say marigold, nasturtium and pansy – they last all summer and autumn and almost impossible to fail

2 What will flower for a good length of time and be good for cutting

My top list is dahlia, then cloeme and asters.

[allotmentlady]

verbena bonariensis are an easy flower to grow, scented and beautiful, they also self propogate in the garden, grow to about 6ft in height but dainty heads.

my favourite flower on my allotment, easy top attract the bees aswell.

[djhs196]

It'll be my first year growing cut flowers, but I've planned an 8 x 4 bed as follows (loosely based on Sarah Raven's cut flower book) to include fillers and flowers:

3 x Euphorbia oblongata - green filler
2 x Ammi majus - white filler
1 x Cosmos bipinnatus "Purity" - white cosmos
5 x Rudbeckia "Rusty"
5 x Calendula officinalis "India Price"
5 x Antirrhinum , mixed
5 x Zinna "Sprite mixed"

I'd also like to put in a Dalia - Jescot Julie / Rip City - somewhere else in the garden (there's no room in the bed once the above is planted!).

No idea how it'll pan out, but that's the thinking! Best of luck

[SarzWix]

How about sunflowers? You can get a lot of varieties which branch out, with smaller heads, which make lovely cut flowers. Different colours too - yellows, burnt orange, reds. I'd also agree with the Rudbeckia, you can get perennial ones as small plants from B&Q etc for a couple of quid too (Goldsturn? something like that!), which form a lovely big clump after a couple of years. Poppies are quite easy and make nice cut flowers, but they're a bit short lived in a vase.

[Flummery]

I grew ammi majus too - a lovely frothy white flower - last ages as a cut flower.

[Two_Sheds]

Sarah Raven is the daddy for cut flower gardening... can you get one of her books from your library? I like her colour choices ... deep, vibrant rich colours rather than soppy pastels.

I grow flowers mainly for insects, but a lot of them are also good for cutting:
Sweet William (dead easy from seed)
Wallflowers
Sweet peas I find tricky, and time-consuming, but do a few, cream only.
Cornflowers ... easy and prolific. Blues, white and nearly-black.
Calendula are good for insects and for cutting (stems are a bit sticky though)
Dahlia (dark red)
Opium poppies - so easy if you let them seed themselves ... they are shallow-rooted and easy to pull up if in the wrong place.
Scabious (red and black) .. bees love it
Sunflowers & Jerusalem Artichokes
Buddleja (butterflies love it)